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No sense in spilling those details to the club owner. Because Logan had seen it, the former SEAL had undoubtedly shared it with his buddy Thorpe. Even if Logan hadn’t, Thorpe somehow knew most everything that happened under his roof.
Jason swirled the Scotch in his glass. Where to begin? Not the early days of their courtship, but later…when she’d finally trusted him with her real name, when everything between them had become personal and genuine.
The beginning of the end.
“Last November, I invited Gia to a benefit dinner for the homeless. It raised money for a shelter and kicked off a coat drive. She’d seen enough of my life by then to know that we’d be photographed and that people would speculate. At first, she told me that she didn’t own a dress fancy enough for a five-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner. I offered to take care of it. She insisted I take the money I would have spent on her ticket and a dress and donate it because those people needed it far more than she did. She was the first woman I’d ever met who turned down money.”
Thorpe sipped his drink. “And that shocked you.”
“Completely. I was already infatuated with her. But her selflessness…did something to me.” And he’d never recovered.
He swallowed, remembering that he’d driven to her house that night, uninvited, and fucked her like a man possessed. She’d been surprised, but welcoming. Happy, even. The night had been extraordinary, and he’d realized then that he hadn’t scened or had sex with anyone else since meeting her. He hadn’t wanted to. A first for him.
“The next day, Gia called me because she’d heard on the news that the same foundation would be serving an early Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless downtown and that I would be there helping. She surprised me again by asking if she could come along to lend a hand. When she refused the benefit dinner, I’d wondered if she didn’t want to be seen with me and gossiped about. But no. She really just didn’t want to take money that would help the needy. Instead of accepting a Versace gown so I could wine and dine her, she offered to donate food, cook, clean—whatever we needed.”
Jason had seen Gia’s big heart and lost his head. As he’d stood beside her and dished out trays of food to the homeless, he had totally fallen for her. A pressing need to make her utterly his had assailed him. He’d been unable to talk himself out of it, so he’d set the wheels in motion.
“Your wife is a good person. I understand the circles you were raised in. A big heart is both very rare and very attractive.” Thorpe looked out the open door of his office and spied on Callie, tidying up around the silent dungeon—and sneaking a peek Thorpe’s way.
The yearning on the man’s face told Jason that he did, in fact, perfectly comprehend.
“The day after Thanksgiving, I took Gia to dinner.” He gave a self-deprecating grin. “If I’d been thinking, I would have realized that The Mansion on Turtle Creek wouldn’t have been her first choice. I probably also would have chosen a more modest engagement ring, something more her style.”
Thorpe looked mildly amused. “How big was it?”
“The center stone was about five carats, cushion cut, set in platinum with another two carats surrounding it. I might have gone overboard.”
“Might?” Thorpe raised a brow.
Jason shrugged. “Okay, so I did. My wife isn’t a little thing like Callie, but the ring looked huge on her hand. I don’t even know if she liked it. She didn’t say a word other than ‘yes.’”
That had been one of the happiest nights of his life. Gia was the most genuine person he knew, and she made him look at everything in a different, more altruistic light. With her around, he could be more generous and grateful, even optimistic. Other than an isolated childhood, life had been pretty damn good to him. But she’d made everything perfect for that idyllic forty-eight hours.
“You hustled her to Vegas the next day?” Thorpe already knew the answer, but he looked amused.
“I did.” After keeping her in his bed all night long. “I wasn’t giving her any time to change her mind. By that Saturday afternoon, we were married. We had the penthouse at The Venetian, along with all the room service and champagne we could consume.”
And they’d had each other. That incredible night—the only night he’d ever spent with her as his wife—was forever etched in his memory. Hands down, it had been the best of his life.
“When did things start to roll downhill? From my vantage point, it looked awfully fast.” The Dungeon Master swallowed back the last of his booze, then glanced at Callie as she pranced past his door again.
Thorpe didn’t like having emotions for the girl. A hundred bucks said they made him feel somewhere between uncomfortable and unwise. Jason related.
“That Sunday at four a.m., Gia received a call from her father saying that her brother had been killed in the line of duty.”
“I heard. He was a cop too, right?”
“Yes. His partner at the time was the only one who witnessed the shooting deep in South Dallas gang turf. He apparently stayed with Tony rather than running the asshole down. None of the other units were willing to come into that neighborhood to back him up and track the thug down. Gia was heartbroken. We rushed home. And that’s when things fell apart.”
That’s when the terrible hemorrhaging had set in.
“She was going through a lot,” Thorpe pointed out.
“And like an idiot, I stepped back to give her space because she asked me to.” Jason rubbed at his forehead, where he felt a headache developing. “During our next conversation, she admitted that she’d never told her parents about me. She hadn’t met my mother either, so I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t really understand what a big deal family was to her until it was far too late.”
“Did she say why she kept you her dirty little secret?”
“Yes. She’s from a family of police officers. Her parents wanted her to marry another cop named Enzo. They’d handpicked him for her. He’s a member of her church, and she’s known him all her life. Gia swore that she married me because she loved me. Whatever that means.” Probably not relevant since her feelings hadn’t lasted.
